PCN Britain publishes four information leaflets

Thursday 6th April 2017

Our 14th AGM last Saturday saw the launch of a new set of leaflets providing an up to date reflection of PCN’s work and what we stand for.

Commending the leaflets to the assembled members, PCN chair, Adrian Alker, encouraged us all to do our best to spread the leaflets about. Large stocks have been printed and up to 50 of each can be ordered free of charge in the PCN online shop, (see links below).

Notes on the AGM

Nearly 70 members attended the AGM, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham. Unusually there was no visiting speaker for us to listen to. Instead we were invited to listen to each other in what was billed The Big Conversation. First, we welcomed Ian Geere to the management committee, and thanked our departing trustees, Gareth Hexter, Geraint Rees and Tony Rutherford. Then the conversation began in earnest. Members chose one of five different conversations. The first looked at how to attract younger people under the age of 50 into our membership, another shared ideas on helpful resources and speakers for meetings*. Two looked at effective use of the internet – focused either on the website, or our social media. And the last looked at our direction of travel in the future. In the last hour we all gathered in a circle to continue the conversations in plenary session, facilitated by Adrian Alker.

Reflecting on the Big Conversation, Adrian wrote in his recent Chair’s Update,

I would like to thank the very many PCN members and friends who attended The Big Conversation, which proved so invigorating as we discussed many aspects of the work and vision of PCN. The trustees will discuss many of the points raised in our discussion groups and we will present some kind of overview of those conversations in the next Progressive Voices so that all our members may have an opportunity to join in the ongoing reflections about our work. For me it became even clearer that PCN must operate in different ways, working, on the one hand, within and on the edge of the Christian churches to press the cause of what progressive Christian faith might look like and on the other hand being in conversation with organisations, groups and individuals who seek new ways, some of them a-theistic, to grasp what it means to be fully human, to be ‘spiritual’ and not bound by religion.

Some might argue that this ‘two faced’ approach is contradictory and undermining of Christianity. I would argue that in searching for honest Truth about ourselves and the meaning of our lives we should be unafraid to explore that boundary between religious faith and secular thought. More to come!

* A list of resources and potential speakers will be published on this website in due course.